Why Churches Need Teams, Not Hierarchies

There's something amazing that happens when people discover they're not just spectators in God's Kingdom—they're mission critical to it. I've watched it countless times: someone who's been sitting in the pews for years suddenly realizes their gifts actually matter, and they come alive in a way that transforms not just them, but everyone around them.

I remember our early days of church planting when we met in an elementary school gym. Every Sunday morning, we arrived to bare floors. No chairs, no stage, no sound system. Nothing. We had to build our entire worship environment from scratch, then tear it all down afterward. For over three years, we pulled massive trailers and hauled equipment, setting up pipe and drape around the entire gym, complete with stage lighting—basically creating a concert venue every single week.

You might think people would complain about all that work. Instead, those who participated in setup and teardown for three years look back on that time with such fondness. "Those were the good old days," they'll tell you. Why? Because everyone felt genuinely needed. We couldn't have church without each person showing up and doing their part. There was no professional performance to watch—we were all performers in God's great drama.

The morale was incredible. People brought donuts. Teams went to lunch together after teardown. We were serving together, and it created connections that no amount of professional programming could manufacture.

The Pyramid Problem

But here's what I've discovered: this kind of environment doesn't work in cultures where you create power pyramids. When church becomes about climbing totem poles rather than using your gifts, everything changes. Suddenly, it's not about what you're actually doing—it's about how close you can get to the powerful people at the top.

We begin to categorize roles hierarchically. Accounting isn't as important as preaching. Setup isn't as valuable as teaching. The moment we create these artificial rankings, we lose the Kingdom reality that everyone is mission critical to God's purposes.

I always joke with people that they should plant a church if they really want to discover their gifts. When you come into a well-oiled machine, hierarchies are easy. Someone hands you a job description and tells you what to do. But when you plant a church, things don't work unless everyone shows up. Suddenly you discover that the setup team is more important than the preacher, because what good is a sermon if people have nowhere to sit?

The Efficiency Trap

I've wrestled with this tension between efficiency and health. Your church can be efficient or it can be healthy—and sometimes these feel mutually exclusive, at least initially. When we focus on healthy first, we may be messy and scattered for a while. But eventually, health produces its own kind of efficiency as people find their gifts and step into their callings.

The most challenging thing about moving toward team-led environments is that many people actually prefer the efficient hierarchy. They want to be told what to do rather than discover what they're called to do. Some prefer the anonymity of being spectators rather than the responsibility of being participants.

But we have to refuse to accommodate this consumer mentality. We must keep calling people into the truth that they are mission critical to God's Kingdom. If you are made in the image of God—which I believe everyone is—and if you have said yes to the gift of Jesus, then Holy Spirit has given you a gift. You are on mission with the Lord and with us. We need you to do your job, and you need us to do ours.

True Team Leadership

When I talk about team leadership, I'm not talking about calling it a team while attracting the weakest people possible—yes-men who will basically do whatever you want. That's not a team; that's a dictatorship with better marketing.

Real team leadership means pulling together powerful people who have genuine gifts and strong opinions. It's like Abraham Lincoln's "team of rivals" approach. When you gather strong personalities around a table, there will be conflict. But conflict isn't the problem—it's through healthy conflict that good solutions emerge.

This is what Jesus modeled in Luke 22. He told the disciples they would have thrones and judge twelve tribes, but first they had to learn to come around His table. At that table, they were all powerful—He had called them because they were powerful. But He couldn't put them on thrones until they learned to wash feet around His table.

What we're advocating isn't a bunch of weak people saying yes to one powerful leader. We're advocating for teams of very powerful people who have learned to honor one another and work toward consensus. Everyone gets heard. Everyone gets taken seriously. Everyone participates in decisions.

The Mission Critical Mindset

Here's the practical reality: when everyone understands they're mission critical, beautiful things happen. Strengths get celebrated and given opportunities to be used. Where people have weaknesses, instead of exploiting those vulnerabilities, we come alongside to provide support. It requires trust—you need me to use my strengths, and I need you to use yours.

This creates an ebb and flow where leadership becomes situational rather than positional. There are seasons where one person takes more leadership while another focuses on different priorities. It's organic, based on gifting and calling rather than artificial hierarchies.

Breaking Consumer Christianity

One of the biggest challenges we face is breaking people out of consumer Christianity. Many churchgoers have been trained to expect professional performance. They drop their kids off at the Disneyland experience called children's church, then sit back and watch the show. They've abdicated responsibility for spiritual growth and Kingdom advancement.

We have to refuse this. We must keep pressing the truth that church is not something done for you—it's something you participate in. Church is a greenhouse where we learn to flourish so we can bear fruit outside its walls. This is training for reigning.

The pressure is on us as leaders to refuse to accommodate spectator mentality. We must keep calling people to more than comfortable anonymity. Yes, this means some people will leave for churches that cater to consumers. But those who stay and step into their calling will discover a life more abundant than they ever imagined.

The Fruit of Breaking Pyramids

When we break pyramid thinking and embrace true team leadership, we create environments where people discover not just their tasks but their identity. Finding your place isn't just about what you do—it's about who you are in God's Kingdom.

When people find that face-to-face communion with the Father, beholding His glory and being transformed from glory to glory, they discover something liberating. What they do begins to flow out of who they are, not the other way around. Their identity gets rooted in God's love rather than their position on some organizational chart.

This is the Kingdom reality Jesus introduced—a completely different operating system for human relationships. Instead of power flowing downward in one direction, it flows in all directions. Instead of authority meaning control, it means responsibility to serve. Instead of leadership meaning being in charge, it means lifting others up.

The choice before every church, every ministry, every Kingdom community is simple: Will we build pyramids or will we build teams? Will we create hierarchies that serve the few, or will we create environments where everyone can flourish?

The Kingdom of God is not a pyramid with Jesus at the top. It's a circle with Jesus at the center, and all of us learning to dance around Him in mutual submission, mutual honor, and mutual empowerment.

Welcome to a different way of doing church—one where everyone is mission critical, everyone has a voice, and everyone gets to experience the joy of serving in their God-given gifts. This isn't just better church structure; it's a reflection of the very heart of God expressed through Christ.

Blessings,
Susan 😊